


The Scholar's Wife

by FlyingQuetzal



Category: Liáo zhāi zhì yì | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pú Sōnglíng
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 13:03:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13124298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlyingQuetzal/pseuds/FlyingQuetzal
Summary: The scholar had never been interested in taking a wife, but the one he got turned out interesting.





	The Scholar's Wife

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Quillori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quillori/gifts).



> I'd like to thank cyanides for betaing this story.

It was in Scholar Wang‘s thirtieth year that his parents told him that he would be married once summer came.

The Scholar had been too busy with studies to look for a wife and his parents had not pressed him till now, believing that he should find his own wife so his marriage might be as happy as their own. 

But the Scholar had little interests beyond his books and duties. He had only recently taken note that having a wife at his side might be pleasant. Those thoughts came to him as he sat of his books and listened to the going ons at the neighboring house.

That house had sat empty for all to long, some even said it was haunted. The Scholar’s father had worried about it falling more and more into disrepair and reflecting poorly on their own house. So it had been fortunate when with lots of noise and cheer new neighbors had moved in. 

The whole affair had been of little interest to Scholar Wang, but his mother had told all she had found to his father and him. The house belonged to a rich merchant family called Hu, they had brought it back to former beauty for a woman called Hu Lian - an orphan who nethertheless was well cared for by her uncle. She had moved in unseen and never left the estate,

The Scholar had of course not seen her either, but as he sat in the garden – reading his books – he had heard. It had not been the melodical voice of a nightinggale singing sweet songs but a quiet sure voice talking about the great philosophers. He found her words quite curious and wondered whether they were own or anothers thoughts.  
And as he heard the clicking of game pieces on a board he thought that he might like to debate those words over a game with her.

So when his parents informed him that they had chosen his wife, he was quite regretful for not having found her earlier and asking his parents to see whether a match could be made.

His regret turned to great joy when his parents told him that the Lady Hu was to be his wife.

As the preparations for the wedding were made he spend a lot on time on finding texts he would like to read and discuss with her. The rarest scrolls made their way into his library which could have truly rivaled the finest one could find in the capital.

And finally on the day of his wedding he met his wife for the first time. 

In his usually calm heart he felt the beginnings of a flutter as he saw the burning light in her eyes, but his heart calmed immediately as he that light turn off to be replaced by sad resignation. Quite clearly had expected somebody else.

In the years that came he tried several times to coax from her the name of the one she had been waiting for. But it was one of the two things she refused him on. 

Except for those two things their marriage was rather harmonious. The Scholar’s parents were happy to have found such a good match for their son. The Lady Hu was without flaw in her wifely duties and the villagers remarked quite often how her pleasant personality quite furthered her equally pleasant face.

But Scholar Wang cared little for his wife being a perfect and beautiful wife, more than her refusal to name the one in her heart he was vexed by her refusal to read and discuss any of the texts in his library. For a time he had thought she would claim to be illiterate but she never sunk that low.  
So it happened that one summer many years into his marriage he sat over his books and pondered his wife when a servant called him to the front door.

As he went there he found a great cluster of servants and a man of indeterminate age who looked quite close to collapse in a soldier’s heavy armor. 

The whole house had been raised over the affair and as the man was given something to drink to get an explanation from him, Scholar Wang found the answer to his wife’s heart.

“Feng”

Her voice had been quiet, meant for no one, least of all him. But he had heard, there was no doubt in him that Feng was the one in his wife’s heart.

The Scholar had the man brought inside and nursed back to health.

The man wouldn’t give a name beyond Feng and said that he had been a mercenary in quite a many wars hoping to raise enough funds to become worthy of asking for the hand of his childhood friend in marriage. But once had the money, he had found that she had already been married to another for many years and now he did not know where his purpose lay.

Hearing this the Scholar Wang offered that he might stay here and become a guard to the estate.

After several days of pondering that offer the man agreed.

Scholar Wang had expected that he might seek his wife out or she him, but neither even met except when Wang was also present. Now when they met it was quite clear to Wang that their hearts yearned for each other, although the signs were so subtle that no one else saw them.

Then one day while the Scholar traveling home from the capital after his duties took him there, his little group of travellers was attacked by bandits. It was only due to Feng’s swift and sure actions that they survived at all. While everybody was showering Feng with praise, Scholar Wang was pondering. For he had seen for just a moment a fox’s lush tail on Feng’s form.

When they arrived back home the Scholar confronted his guard about it.  
Feng readily confessed to being a fox and said that he meant no harm and his story was all true. 

Scholar Wang then asked for the name of his love, but Feng only said that it best remain unspoken for she had married quite well and what use was there in bringing them all misery by reaching for that which was unattainable.

Seeing the wisdom in those words, he didn’t ask further, only asking for what Feng was willing to say of the his story.

Feng readily told him that when he had been young a human had saved his life but lost his own and his wife’s in exchange. Feng’s father had been grateful for the sacrifise and to repay their kindness he had taking in the couple’s orphaned daughter. In the beginning Feng had been embarrassed to be near her for he feared that she’d blame him for his parent’s death. So when he met her when she had become a young woman many years later it was like meeting her for the very first time and he was enchanted. He had asked his father for her hand in marriage, but his father had said that in order to repay the debt of life he would make sure she was well matched by one who could provide for her not with the fortunes he might inherit but by his own hands’ hard work. And so Feng had set out.

Scholar Wang found himself quite moved by the story. For many a night he lay awake asking himself whether he should ask his wife for her side of the story, because quite clearly Feng hadn’t been the only one enchanted. 

In the end the Scholar decided that actions might yield better results than just words. 

So one evening he called for his wife and Feng and told them all that he knew and suspected. They grew fearful then, begging that the other was innocent and should not be punished, if someone had done wrong it was only their own fault.

Seeing them so protecting of each other, Wang knew that he had made the right choice during his sleepless nights and told them that he would not mind them being with each other, as long as they were discreet in their relations.

Never was Scholar Wang given reason to doubt that decision. On the contrary, quite often he praised his ancestors for making him so lucky. 

Not only did the burning light he had only seen once return to his wife’s eyes, she became quite willling to discuss the books in his library with him. And after she had revealed that her knowledge came from the books she found in her fox uncle’s library occasionally a book the Scholar didn’t have yet would suddenly appear among his books. Feng revealed that some of them were entirely unknown to humans and had been written by foxes.

In the fortunately long years that followed Scholar Wang would spend many an evening sitting with his wife and the best friend he had gained playing a game while discussing one philosopher or another.


End file.
